These are valid reasons. However, people could just keep their voting intentions to themselves thus avoiding being the odd-man out and attracting Trump’s wrath.
Another possible explanation is that some folks in the Republican party want to politically survive what will come after a landslide loss in November. And yes, I realize some of our friends in these forums believe Trump will be re-elected; however, my impression as a centrist is that the Republican party is being tarnished by Trump’s actions. Republican politicians who want to remain relevant and electable will want to vocally distance themselves from POTUS.
I did not mean to say that all statues were vandalized without purpose. I’m not against the removal of statues of racists and confederate slavers at all. Those were usually the first to go in many cases and good riddance as far as I’m concerned.
But this is getting out of hand when many statues are indiscriminately getting vandalized, even those of people who fought against slavery. For those, I stand by my opinion that they were defiled only for the sake of destroying something. Or did you mean that it was alt-right targeting them as retaliation?
All those excesses just reinforce the easy argument that protesters don’t truly have a point and are just out there for mischief or to loot. They completely undermine protesters arguments while at the same time giving easy fodder for the Tucker crowd that Americans are in a civil war and that they need to “remember that when they come for you”.
Fair point, this could well be political positioning for in 6 months or 4 years from now being able to claim that they never supported him truly. But why turn coat now? If you look at people like Romney and other never Trumpers, they held a consistent stance throughout. So for recent defections, is it due to recent polling, the handling of COVID-19, or some Republicans smelling blood in the water for November?
No I simply meant that it seems possible that there are only a few outliers either mistakenly or maliciously targeted.
The statement I quoted said “we’ve clearly ascertained that most of these”, which seems to clearly indicate that the majority (“most”) are mistargeted.
In reference to Romney, I remember when Trump was allegedly interviewing potential cabinet members and Romney was one of them. Of course, Romney and several others went to visit Trump and got played. Trump is a person who never forgets or forgives; that’s just who he is. So, there were at least a couple of days when Romney wasn’t a never Trumper.
All of the above, IMO. If the polls were showing a clear Trump re-election, they’d be by his side like the politicians they’re. The handling of the pandemic affects public voter opinion. With the recent polls, the smell of blood is pungent.
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But polls of typically Republican-leaning swing states from Fox News yielded the most shocking results, with Biden ahead by 9 points in Florida, 2 points in North Carolina and Georgia and 1 point in Texas, which voted for Trump by 8 points in 2016.
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This news could make a Republican unhinged… & it did, me…
Everything we hear has Trump at fault. He caused the Yahoo virus, his base is behind the looters & night time vandals, etc. You name it & he is the cause.(even cancer)
So I’m just going to go with my favorite radio man, Rush. He said, Trump will win. Economy good, lower taxes, avoid socialism. What else do we want or need? (I’m sure u will tell me)
You say BLM, ok, but they will tear down & burn for everything they want. (that’s what the man said) Biden will go along, nothing else to do. His base will control, no stamina left in the man…
The polls being trumpeted are all phony. Exact same thing happened back in 2016. Remember how Hillary was a lock?
Truth is, only polls of likely voters matter, and most of these polls are of registered voters. A whole lot of registered voters never vote, and especially not when they think their candidate, Biden, will win easily without their vote.
Rasmussen, who deals only in likely voters, has Trump today at 47%, which is a wonderful number. Take heart. The mainstream media propaganda arm of the DNC is out there right now doing its job. And that job is to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) among supporters of President Trump. Don’t believe 'em. They are experienced, professional liars!!
It’s a false “both sides” equivalency. Only “one side” has
publicly speculated/fantasized about an armed insurrection and repeatedly made baseless claims about millions of fraudulent votes. (Nevermind saying he’ll have a third term in office) Thankfully there are not enough KKK and other nutjobs to do that much damage.
So true. Just look at those Dem state governors & mayors that let the mob rule, loot & burn out their cities. Their motto “destroy the Police” & have festivities.
One thing I fault him for is his proven inability to work across the aisle. Dems sure did everything they could to not cooperate but he hardly ever looked like he’d be ready to compromise on anything. He’s not solely responsible for the further increase in polarization of the country but he owns a fair share of it due to how he communicates.
The economic record is also more muddled than you make it sound. To be generous, the tax cuts (TCJA) did not work as well as intended. It boosted stock prices in large part due to share buybacks but the cuts fell way short of paying for themselves. In fact, tax revenues fell sharply afterwards. Budget deficits grew steadily from 3.1% of GDP in 2016 to 4.6% of GDP in 2019 (was projected to be 4.8% GDP in 2020 but with COVID-19, it’ll probably be 3-4 times as much).
They were supposed to be a boost for the economy. GDP growth bumped up slightly in 2018 to the same level it was in 2015 (2.9%), then back down to 2.3% in 2019 back around the level it was in 2016-2017. Manufacturing jobs are still on the same trajectory as they were since 2009 according to the BLS (ignoring COVID-19 effect obviously), meaning manufacturing jobs are still not back. The 10-yr projection by the BLS from 2017 are basically unchanged. All this does not scream to me that we are much better off than 4 years ago economically.
We did avoid socialism - that would have been unexpected hehe - but COVID-19 made it clear that our patchwork healthcare system is not working well and I don’t see any reason to hope it’ll get better soon (to be fair from neither potential next POTUS unfortunately).
For middle class, Millenials, and inequalities in general, are they better off now (even without COVID)? I’m not sure. The gig economy is alive and well and considering how precarious this type of employment is, I don’t think that’s very positive. As someone in the top 5% net worth, I did fine the last few years but I don’t get the sense this is the case for the rest of the country.
And aside from boomers dying prematurely from COVID-19, we’re also not really closer to a viable entitlements reform and running out of time to affect the trajectory. This is something I really wish he tackled before 2018 when he had Congress on his side - or at least not the house against him - because I’m not sure when a better opportunity will present itself. Pretty soon we’ll run out of street where to kick the can on this unfortunately.
So I don’t think his re-election is the slam dunk Rush makes it sound to be. But there’s tons of time before November and Biden won’t be able to hide forever either.
I have said over & over again. Trump had the Congress & Senate together, why didn’t things change then?
His staff was not helping & Trump was not experienced. If he had had a more competent group of officials behind the scenes giving productive advice, different results… Instead he had Obama’s left over’s. Get rid of them!
Shandril, your post is really right on with your numbers. You & I & most of the posters here are doing fine economically now. I still must stand with Rush & yes we still have months to go before election.
Another day, another CNN media keeping tallies on Trumps golfing. (Bend3r likes to keep tabs also) Critics also love to point to his not wearing a mask.
Don’t you know the media will never change this man? I kinda like his attitude, along with MAGA. His time will come & I’ll be there to celebrate.
Seriously? The House Speaker back then was Paul Ryan; you know, the guy we both voted for in 2012 for VP. Paul is otherwise known as “RINO Ryan”. He is married to a staunch Democrat and the two of them get along really well politically. Ryan, an experienced and powerful politician, played newcomer Trump like a fiddle in 2017.
Ask yourself: whose running mate was Ryan in 2012? And it is just possible Ryan’s politics is even farther to the left than Romney, himself a Massachusetts wonder boy. Who needs Dukakis, Carey, and Warren when you have Romney?
It’s all so disgusting. And Trump had no clue whatsoever back then. Even now I wonder from time to time if he understands his base fully, though clearly he has learned a lot since back in his Paul Ryan days.
ETA
Just one more factoid about Ryan which I happen to recall:
The guy decided early that he would not run again for Congress. But instead of stepping down as Speaker at that time so a more conservative Republican could take over, Ryan the RINO held onto power until after the 2018 midterms in order to continue making things impossible for Trump. Only after those elections, confident Pelosi would be re-assuming the speakership, did Ryan finally yield that gavel, knowing it would be placed safely into the hands of another like-minded leftist.
